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In a rave review of high speed trains for business travelers, New York Times writer Paul Burnham Finney (April 24) says more American business people are taking the train - - in Europe, Japan and elsewhere.

It's another big event in Train Month (that's what it seems like this month). He writes that business people prefer trains over planes, and obviously cars. Faster. And they can work online, as the trains there have high speed Internet connections.

The train from Paris to Brussels, he writes, takes only an hour and a half. No one flies between those two cities anymore, he says.

And our NineShift conclusion is that Americans like trains too. Hopefully business will advocate for more trains here too.

* The Minnesota Senate passed a new tax hike on the state's wealthy people that would give Minnesota the highest tax rate for wealthy individuals in the nation. The money would go for education. While likely to be vetoed by the state's Republican governor, it indicates the growing interest in lessening the wealth imbalance in the nation.

*Paris to become City of Bikes. Paris, France, will make thousands of bikes available on the streets for citizens to use. The first half hour will be free, with charges after that. Based on statistics from current bike usage in Lyon, the city expects each bike will be used 12 times a day, a total of 91 million trips a year. In Lyon, vehicle traffic is down 4 percent, bike use has tripled, and 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide pollution has been saved.

* Democrats want to triple funding for children's health programs. Just another stage in the effort to get universal portable health insurance, a prerequisite for knowledge workers.

Peterson is also president of the National League of Cities. His city of Indianapolis is studying a light rail line, but needs funding for it. The gasoline tax of just 18.3 cents a gallon has not risen since 1993, sure to be a sore point all around. The war will get vicious. Lots at stake. The eventual winner of course will be trains. Time to fight for the 21st century.

This concludes our whole week of posts on the latest news about trains. Pretty exciting.

More exciting news about trains.Toronto will become a Transit Town by 2020.

Officials recently announced 7 new light-rail lines to be built by 2020 for just $6 billion.Here's the Globe and Mail story. From the story: "Adam Giambrone, chairman of the officially unveiled the plans for seven new
light-rail lines, running along major avenues in dedicated lanes, at a press
conference Friday morning.He said the plan, if funding from other governments can be found, would
bring downtown-style rapid transit to the suburbs."

Toronto thus positions itself as a major 21st century city, setting the standard not just for Canada but for all of North America. Yeah Toronto!

While Americans are bashing the French, the French just keep building faster trains, essential in the fight for productivity, gaining and keeping knowledge workers. Yeah France. Yeah trains. Photo: The French train that goes 200 mph.

Some 10 billion trips by Americans. Biggest gains were for light rail, up 5.6% over 2005. Second biggest gains were for trains, up 4.1% over 2005. Third biggest gains were for commuter trains, up 3.2% over last year. Go trains. Go kids.

Other impressive facts. Transit ridership increased more than the growth in population. It increased more than vehicle miles traveled. Transit trips were 15 times more than domestic airline trips. Wow.

APTA doesn't really know why (we do). The closest reason they gave was "transit oriented youth." The wrongest reason given was high gas prices. But bottom line: cause for celebration. America on the move in the right direction. Thanks to NineShifter Jeff Kart for alerting us to this story.

Two stories this
past month in USA Today again raise concern over their ongoing denial that there
are neurological differences between boys and girls that account for why
boys learn differently from girls.

Columnist Kevin
Maney rightly celebrates the first woman to win the most prestigious prize in
computing. Then he unbelievably
writes that "it's ridiculous to suggest that girls are less predisposed to math
and science." Of course all the
evidence suggests that indeed is the case. He cites no
evidence.

So I counted the
male-female references in Maney's most recent ten columns on technology to see if Maney is
engaging in a bit of hypocrisy. Of 29 references to,
or quotes of, experts in the ten columns, none were from
women. (I discounted his
derisive reference to "Pamela Anderson's blog").

2. Monica Hortobagyi
story 2/27

The second article
is even more worrisome. It was not only
sexist, but maybe even racist implications. Of all the
articles written in the rest of the media, Monica Hortobagyi
chooses to quote an article
featuring sexist, and of course unsupportable, comments against
boys by officials at
Wichita State University. The basketball
coach, obviously referring to African American males, says "boys don't have the
work ethic." Since half of all
African Americans are boys, and the most underrepresented in higher ed at
that, it raises the
question whether the boy bashing has racial implications. If he had said
half of all African Americans don't have the work ethic, could he keep his job? (and would USA Today
have quoted him?- - no)

All data indicates
boys are equally successful in the work place as young women, so once
again USA Today writers
choose negative stereotypes over facts. Monica Hortobagyi
and Kevin Maney join Mary Beth Marklein and Richard Whitmore in this disturbing
pattern of frequent boy bashing, ignoring the growing body of
research that boys learn
differently from girls because of their neurology. USA Today writers
(and editorial board given their editorials on the subject) continue this
made-up sexist theory unsupported by the evidence.